As you can see the team shirts have arrived and I have to say I am very impressed with how they have turned out. The team colours will get the first showing on Sunday for the Dragon ride through Brecon Beacons in Wales this coming Sunday. The Dragon ride is the final event that I will be riding prior to the main event in Italy. There are several decent climbs on this event and while not so severe as those on the Maratona, the overall distance is greater at 120 miles, so it will give me a good idea of how I'm going to fair come July 1st.
Last week I met up with Dr. Garry Palmer from Sportstest for my follow assessment to see the hard facts and figures behind all of my training effort. The results were positive, if somewhat surprising. While I have seen significant power increase (some 40 watts!), high load efficiency improvements, increased max heart rate as well as weight loss, I have only made minor improvements to my low load efficiency levels. While on balance this reads very well, with many significant improvements, it is surprising because the main focus of may training has been to improve low load efficiency as this is the area of riding that is so important on endurance events. It is not clear why this has happened, but it is a shame that I did not have the follow up session with Garry sooner as this could have been picked up and my schedule adjusted to suit. Garry is not greatly concerned as I have exceeded the golden 4 watts per kg ratio, so with a careful feeding pattern I should be good for the Maratona, I have my fingers crossed and will be using the Dragon ride to practise the feed schedule.
The forecast for Sunday is wet and windy, but I'm still looking forward to the event. Check back next week to see how we do!
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